Before the season began, the odds were that the first manager to be fired would be Lloyd McClendon. But Lloyd's looking a lot better after the first 4 games! Boone seems to be more on the hot seat, but when the hitting comes around, like it is doing this Friday night, Boone will look better, too. I hope Reds' management is not too hasty. A firing and hiring will probably make more disruption than needs be for this ball club.

Well, now it's almost 2 weeks later and the Reds are looking worse (if you can believe it) than the first week of the season. Hire-fire is usually not a good situation, and I think Boone needs to be given an extended period of time with a healthy Griffey before we give him the axe.

You can't blame Boone for the Reds problems. There is some question whether Jim Bowden will be back next year. However, the Reds GM always does the most with the least. The Reds lack any real pitching talent and really don't have a pitcher that would be anything more than a 5th starter on other teams. They have two good OFs in Dunn and Kearns, and two decent IFs in Casey and Boone. beyond that, the Reds are a weak team. We need to trade for some pitchers or bring some up through the farm system. This is the only way the reds are going to be a winner.

I wouldn't say their pitching staff is that horrible in the talent department. Reitsma, Wilson, Graves, Anderson, Haynes isn't close to the best in the league, or even in the middle but I wouldn't put them last. Once Graves starts building stamina and getting more used to starting I think he will be a decent SP. I don't believe Reitsma's lived up to his potential yet.

Their pitching staff is horrible in the talent department, at least relative to the rest of the NL central. They have no true ace and they really have a group of guys who would be decent 3/4/5 starters on most decent teams. The reds have never had this great talent in recent years, and it wouldn't be as big of a deal if they didn't play in the Great American Launching Pad aka Coors East as I've heard it called. PLus, any team that starts Jimmy anderson, who consistently has an ERA over 5, is in trouble.